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Is Fox Expanding X-Franchise With a New Mutants Movie?

Even as Fox inches closer to the start dates for The Wolverine (August) and the sequel to X-Men: First Class (January), the studio may have an eye on expanding its lucrative franchise with, of all things … a New Mutants movie.

Speaking with Fox CEO Tom Rothman at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Collider tossed out the possibility of spinning off the New Mutants, or some of Marvel’s other X-characters, into their own features. The studio chief simply smiled and answered “Yes,” before saying fans could expect an announcement in the summer.

Pressed by the website as to whether Fox is speaking to any filmmakers about the project (or projects), Rothman said, “All I have to say is, I agree with you in your assessment of the potential in a lot of these characters.”

Created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, the New Mutants debuted in 1982 as young superheroes-in-training at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. Essentially, they were junior X-Men, a concept that’s been resurrected a couple of times over the decades, both under the title New Mutants and New X-Men: Academy X.

How, beyond time period, Fox might differentiate a New Mutants movie from X-Men: First Class, with its young, inexperienced heroes, may prove an interesting exercise. But we’ll likely have to wait until Comic-Con International in July to hear the pitch.

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guest45

Rothman responded yes when asked if Fox would spin off “New Mutants or some of these other characters.” He essentially answered yes to a multiple choice question. If Fox was actually working on a “Maggot and Marrow” movie, his answer would still be an honest reply.

Doctor Timebomb

Expecting Warlock on your 711 Big Gulps cups next summer!

animalvegtablemineralman

id so see a “Maggot and Marrow” flick. i say this unironically

SethOnTV

I really don’t think NM with it’s classic roster would make for a good movie.
The power sets are alone are off, Mind-Control (Karma) Fear-Based Illusions (Dani) and Werewolves are the type of power sets Bad Guys have in movies.
Magick and Warlock are hard to explain with out throwing Limbo and Aliens into the movie cannon.
Doug would lack any potential for action sequences

That leaves Cannonball, Sunspot, and Magma
so basically Flight, Strength, and Fire are left, and that’s kind of the generic superhero team starter set.

Kitty was a NM for a while too, but would Ellen Page return?

Kaviedes_freak

Cypher can now use his powers to read body language and predict how his opponents will fight. Therefore he is a handful in h2h situations. He and Warlock can combine to create Douglock as well. Cannonball on the big screen as tonnes of potential as does Sunspot and the fore mentioned Cypher and Warlock combo. Prof x should be there as well as Moira and Legion.

Satanbigsby

That’s pretty close minded. What does it matter if “bad guys” typically have those power sets? Who cares? People aren’t going to avoid the original team’s powers because they’ve seen villains use them. “Fear Based Illusions” has the potential to be extremely visually exciting and unique – WHICH IS A GOOD THING!
Magik/Limbo, to me, is the most interesting aspect of the New Mutants. If anything they should make that THE premise for the movie. Otherwise, why not just make X-men 4?
No, Ellen Page would not return for this, obviously.
Left up to you, a potentially cool flick would be incredibly bland and derivative – no thanks.

You are right about Doug though. Doug’s terrible. Use his latest incarnation or kill him quickly.

ZBaksh386

till they confirm it or debunk it, we know whats up.

I would just make it a sequel for first class set in the 70’s and act accordingly.

http://twitter.com/whileyoureawake ALAN KUN

they likely will only use the concept and name but will likely chose which ever character they think will work

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_46ZJJFEBLQRLXYD66FSPRDW25Q Jugga Lord

Don’t let the “some of these other characters” thing throw you off. It was only a couple of years ago that longtime X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner expressed a strong interest in taking the New Mutants to the big screen. Seeing as how these things can take years to make their way through the queue, I say that prospect of a New Mutants feature is highly likely.

With renewed interest in the X-Men franchise thanks to First Class, it’s very possible to get this concept to work. Think about it like this:

– It’s years later, after FC, and closer to modern day or “near future”.
– Some of the X-Men, who can appear in cameo, are presumed dead. This is in line with the graphic novel.
– To that, add one surviving X-Man, who decides to retire and shut down the school.
– With the X-Men now out of business, there’s a power void and the balance between good and evil is offset.
– The seemingly dormant Hellfire Club, now led by cyborg Donald Pierce, is looking to fill that power void by kidnapping new mutant kids.
– The kidnappings can happen via Hellfire Club goons and, for the stronger kids, even a Sentinel.
– When one of these attacks/kidnappings hits too close to home, this “last man standing” X-Man takes it upon themselves to rescue these kids.
– One of these Hellfire Club goons, Sam Guthrie, turns out to be a mutant himself – hiding in plain sight.
The X-Men are dead and gone, but there’s still a need for a safe haven for these kids.
– This remaining X-Man is way in over their head and is, ultimately, saved by the kids. They see themselves as the future of the X-Men even though this X-Man doesn’t want the kids in the path of danger again.
– The school is reopened and, even though the X-Men don’t technically exist anymore, the balance of power is reset.

Basically, it’s a retelling of the graphic novel. You’ve got the kids. You’ve got Pierce.You’ve got this connection to the X-Men’s legacy.

You can keep it from looking like First Class by….

– Playing up the teen angst and their relationships. This is something that was missing from FC since the focus was on Magneto and Xavier. The kids in that movie got minimized. Make them the focus here.
– Don’t shy away from the big action sequences. First Class went big, but not big enough. Give us a real Sentinel. Give us a quality werewolf Rahne transformation scene. Give us a very Terminator-like Donald Pierce. Give the kids lots of goons to beat up on. First Class was a lot more concerned with being a period piece, in some respects. With New Mutants, the X-Men are well established. There’s an opportunity there for some fancy tech and upgraded training costumes.
– Absolutely NO Xavier or Magneto. The series has relied on them as a crutch for years, telling the same story of their relationship over and over. Give us a new X-Men headmaster.
– In Sam Guthrie, give us an insider’s perspective of the bad buys. Show us how a bad guy turns good. This is the reverse of Magneto’s transformation from X-Man to Brotherhood leader.

My suggestion for headmaster? What about Wolverine or Cyclops?

Can FOX drag Jackman back? I think that they could. The “Wolverine and the X-Men” comic gives us another side of Logan, one of a man attempting to be more responsible and leading by example. It’s a good way for Jackman to put a little humor into the character, an element that’s prominent in the comic. Showing Wolverine’s softer side and his way with kids might be something that Jackman would find attractive. It might be something that would allow him to stretch his legs in the role a bit more.

What about Cyclops as the leader? First Class kinda reset the series. There’s no definitive proof that Cyclops is dead in this prebooted universe. Maybe Cyclops survived whatever (apparently) killed the X-Men. Play him off like they did in the “Wolverine & the X-Men” cartoon’s early episodes. He’s drunk off his @$$, trying to forget his problems. Give him a reason to pick himself up again. Not just for himself, but also for the future of mutantkind. Give us the best possible version of Cyclops. Cyclops was always the best, imho, when he was trying to live up to Xavier’s example. Watching him try to fill “daddy’s” shoes and be the leader he was bred to be would be interesting. He himself could still be struggling to take on that role, making him a strong, but imperfect character. All of his doubt… All of his fears of repeating his mistakes from the X-Men’s final mission… Cyclops could finally be a breakout character.

As far as the lineup goes….

– Sam Guthrie (Cannonbal): That’s a given. Self-loathing mutant hides in plain sight as one of the bad guys, but eventually turns good. He’s a great special effect. Perfect for the pyro guys in VFX.

– Dani Moonstar (Psyche): Eschew the reservation angle. No psyhic arrows either. You can’t play those old cliches in this PC world. Have Dani be a highschool junior at some southwest school. Keep here as a proud Native American, but a bit more integrated and well adjusted than she first appeared. Character-wise, keep her with her power for greatest fears & greatest desires. It’d be especially interesting if the character can impose fear or desire in others, but had trouble overcoming her own fears and satisfying her own desires. It’s a nice bit of angst there.

– Bobby DaCosta (Sunspot): He’s the stubborn rich kid who thinks that he’s entitled to everything. He lives fast and parties hard. His girlfriend is always by his side, which is unfortunate because she gets or made comatose in the attempt to kidnap him. His power is straightforward too. Lots of post CG to get that Sunspot look, but very practical on the budget since his effects are mostly practical. Strong guy effects are cheap to implement.

– Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane): Instead of having her be in Scotland, put her in the bible belt. She lives in an oppressive and overly religious community – the crazy type that would ban dancing like in Footloose. She’s turning into something else, can’t control her powers, and takes a beating (literally) for being the spawn of Satan. Have her father, Reverend Craig, willingly turn over his hellspawn daughter to the Hellfire Club’s goons. Werewolves are common in movies, but they still make for a damn cool effect. Rahne could be this shy, reserved, and scared little girl who learns something about the liberating effects of her mutation. She thinks that she’s evil, but something about her primal, feral nature gives her a joyous release.

– Doug Ramsey (Cypher): Instead of Karma, replace her with Cypher. Think of him as a mutant Luke Skywalker, very much that boy next door look. I would exclude Karma because the team would already have one telepathy powered character in Dani. No need to have a second one. Second, with his power, he can be a very reluctant hero. Nobody sees the mutant kid with the power of languages as a real threat. However, as in Necrosha, that might also make him a pretty credible fighter since he can see body language too. It could also make him the most likely to identify and connect with the final team member, Warlock.

– Warlock: How do you explain this one? Very easily. What about having him as an “evolved” Sentinel. The Hellfire Club always loved tech. Fighting the X-Men with Sentinels was probably commonplace for them.
No matter how self-repairing they became or how much nanotech they were infused with, the X-Men would always beat the Sentinels easily. They’re just mindless machines. What if…. What if, like Skynet, some Sentinel technology became self-aware? Instead of having him be an alien, have him be some sort of self-aware nano-tech, capable of doing some very Warlock type transforming. He, like Sam, could break away from the bad guys and join the New Mutants. Cypher, because of his power over languages, could identify Warlock as being self-ware, which would mean, among other Sentinels, Warlock is a mutant. (See how I got there? ^_^)

LINEUP: Cannonball, Psyche, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, & Warlock
LEADER: Wolverine OR Cyclops
ENEMY: Hellfire Club, Pierce, & some Sentinels. You can even make the Hellions the Hellfire Club’s goon squad, of which Sam starts off as a part.

You’ve got teen angst, teen VS teen slugfests, mutant-style, explosions, high tech, werewolves, and the potential for a solid X-Men story that looks nothing like First Class. Realistically, they’d be the Second Class.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_46ZJJFEBLQRLXYD66FSPRDW25Q Jugga Lord

Another possibility…. FOX owns Blue Sky Studios, the same CG house that produced Ice Age and Rio. Maybe they’re looking into taking the X-Men franchise into a CG direction. It could be FOX’s Incredibles, but with this lesser known X-Men property. A CG animated New Mutants? That could be great too. The sequel potential is through the roof, as you only need voice actors.

Adapting it to a Cartoon Network weekly CG show like Green Lantern is also possible too. How cool would THAT be? Very.

JDHetherington

In all honesty….while I love all the New Mutants, especially Cannonball, Moonstar, Magma and Magik, I would much rather they bring them into an X-Men 4 AS X-Men. They aren’t kids anymore. Yet we still read about there adventures in “New Mutants” after 3 decades. X-Men 4 could have – Wolverine, Storm, Iceman, Angel, Beast, Kitty Pryde and Colossus, you could introduce Magik as a little girl, and then could expand the lineup to Cannonball, Moonstar and Magma. who visually, and personality wise are most different to what’s already there (Cypher looks WAY too much like Cannonball, Sunspot’s real name abreviated is Bobby, and a religion oppressed character is going a bit too after school special for Wolfsbane. Plus Warlock is kind of a package character. You can’t have him WITHOUT the Phalanx) You could do X4: Mutant Massacre, where they go up against the Marauders. And then X5: Apocalypse, where Apocalypse is trying to gain the power of “The Twelve” with obvious people you can substitute for others. You could have a movie inbetween, but I think it works pretty well. I don’t think we need ANOTHER trilogy.

mel

I always felt like xmen3 ended as a set up for Legion.

mel

Honestly, I’m more interested in seeing a Generation X movie.

jrau18

” the studio may have an eye on expanding its lucrative franchise with, of all things … a New Mutants movie.”

Why “of all things”? It’s kinda the next obvious step.

thesnappysneezer

I’m afraid New Mutant may be young Cyclops, Jean and Storm.

Fast Paste

OK, and after this they can jump to an Age of Apacolypse movie. Anything to further convolute the time line of the movies and confuse non-comic readers and readers alike.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_46ZJJFEBLQRLXYD66FSPRDW25Q Jugga Lord

Think about it for a second.

1. A whole set of mutant characters untouched by the franchise thus far. No writer has ruined them or painted them into a corner (eg. Cyclops) yet.

2. Younger main characters as opposed to the 30-something crowd featured the other X-Men movies, or 60+ for Magneto & Xavier. Younger characters = Younger demographic. Marvel, with these angsty teen mutants, could potentially reach the moviegoer more interested in Katniss than a 46 year old Halle Berry.

3. The characters are more ethnically diverse. The New Mutants potential cast breakdown is: Native American, Vietnamese, Brazilian, Scottish, American blue collar, Russian, Mexican, & a bunch of waspy Americans. The New Mutants, much like the Giant-Size X-Men, are a freakin’ rainbow coalition. Again, that’s good since it speaks to a wider audience. As we know, in Hollywood, the only color that matters is green.

4. Laura Shuler Donner, X-producer, really seemed to express interest in these characters over the past year or two. These things take time to rev up and nothing happens quickly in Hollywood.

5, Marvel already touched on the first gen of giving us big screen versions of Angel, Beast, Cyclops, Iceman, & Jean. They touched on that Giant-Size generation by giving us Wolverine, Banshee, Storm, & Nightcrawler. They even touched on that Deadly Genesis interim generation by giving us Darwin. Who’s left really? The true second class of X-Men, the New Mutants. Going by what characters we’ve seen and what generations they represent, the New Mutants ARE the next logical step.

6. FOX absolutely NEEDS the license to stay with them. Not that the movies have broken the bank with crazy receipts, but they do make the studio a bunch of money. FOX has the choice of either repeating themselves by revisiting storylines again (with the same characters) or venturing into new territory (with new characters). FOX needs to keep the mutant money train going. If New Mutants is next then I guarantee you that X-Factor or even Cable is next. FOX will drain their mutant stockpile dry before they give the license back to Marvel.

7. First Class covered the 60s. The sequel will likely take place in the 70s. Wouldn’t it be gnarly to place the New Mutants’ origin back in the 80s? It could happen if FOX execs get hung up on the period piece that was First Class. And if not…. Unless we’re getting a true X-Men 4, FOX might want to bring the mutants back into the 21s century.

8. The likelihood of a true X-Men 4 seems pretty slim. Halle Berry would be 50 by the time it comes out. Hugh Jackman (~44) would be getting up there too, making it ever more unlikely that he’d continue to play the near ageless mutant. McKellen & Stewart are both over 70 now and would be inching closer to 80, provided that they’re alive at all. Getting together that big ensemble cast back together would be prohibitively expensive. And if they do, it’ll just look like a mutant version of Expendables 3. Better to focus their efforts (and money) on a cast of relative unknowns. First, it provides FOX an opportunity to lock them into multi-picture deals for a relatively low price. Second, the cast will get older throughout the series, but never old – a major concern with the cast of the primary franchise. Finally, there’s a buch of stories that you can tell with teens (or actors who look like them) that you can’t tell with a 35 year old.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_46ZJJFEBLQRLXYD66FSPRDW25Q Jugga Lord

I wouldn’t be so worried. We’ve got a better than average chance of seeing those characters pop up in the XFC sequel. Marvel’s really intent on milking the mutant cash cow lately. With the XFC & Wolverine in the works, I wouldn’t put it past FOX to slip in another potential franchise. Let’s also not forget that Deadpool’s not dead at the FOX could very well fast track that too. FOX may be incompetent, but you can’t fault them for their undying love of money. =)